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WWAN in Europe - How to get a working internal WWAN ?

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 5:27 am
by Switchcorp
Hello the community,

It's my first post here and I'm pretty sure that it's not the last !
I'm from Belgium and in my country providers are offering us more and more Internet mobile plans.

I don't like external card (USB) or pcmcia cards because my X61T has the internal slot to upgrade it with an WWAN adaptator. I prefer to have "all-in-one" than a lot of accessories with me !

Lenovo limits the WWAN modules to some Sierra cards. It's easy to find EVDO cards at good price on Ebay for example but it's nearly impossible to find an HSDPA card !

Another way to get this HSDPA card is to extract one of it out of an USB modem like the AT&T 875U. But I've read here that the WWAN modules are flashed to work only on Lenovo computers ...

I suppose in that case that this possibility will not work and that I'll get a 1804 Bios error ! If someone could confirm that point because he has already experimented that ...

It seems so that the only opportunity is to buy a spare parts at 575 $. It's clearly impossible for me ... what a waste of money when you know that the same card is on a USB modem at 120$ !

The other solution is to buy from a Lenovo user this card and to unlock it ... but I don't think that many users will exchange cards so easily !

What's the aim of my topic ?

I want to know if i've missed something or if people have found another path to equip their X... with wwan without getting 1804 error ! Or maybe if someone ... sells his wwan card ;)

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 5:34 am
by Switchcorp
I post again to explain my experience until now :

I bought an Option Modem USB (i know that it's not compatible at all) and i extract the GTM378 out of it. I putted it in my X61T.

Of course i got the 1804 error but sometimes the computer bypassed it and I ran into windows.

After a week using that solution i withdrew the card out of my X61T because it was going crazy ! My computer was instable and the wwan card was unusable ...

Now i've putted it back into the USB modem and it's working like a charm.


I know that my european X61T doesn't have WWAN antenna but ... it worked very well with the third antenna (wifi N antenna). I even thought to upgrade the bezel of my X61T by buying FRU's but it works without it ... I don't like to waste money ;)

I'm trying to find the Holy grail ...

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:21 pm
by aag
that's exactly what i am also trying to do. In Switzerland the Swisscom provider gives out a very bulky HSDPA card, but I would prefer an internal version. Do let me know of your progress, please!

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:56 pm
by Switchcorp
You can follow like me this topic : http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=44451

I have maybe found a supplier for a card ... I'm waiting for answer now ;)

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:02 am
by Switchcorp
Bad luck he has no stock of HSDPA cards :(